Malaysian insurer wants 10% of DFNN

Publicly listed DFNN Inc. on Monday said its Malaysian shareholder had offered to raise its stake in the information technology firm to as much as 10 percent of its total outstanding stock.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), DFNN said that its chairman, Antonio Lopa, had received an official letter from its current shareholder, MAA International Assurance Ltd., regarding the offer.

MAA, a Malaysian insurance firm, currently holds 571,100 common shares of DFNN.

The company said that MAA indicated its interest “to increase its holdings by means of private placement of primary shares based on market prices.”

“The initial discussion regarding their intention is to increase their holdings to close to 10 percent of outstanding or enough shares to acquire a board seat,” the company told the bourse. “MAA International is associated with Malaysian Royal and businessman Tunku Yaacob Bin Tunku Abdullah.”

Should the deal push through, DFNN said proceeds of the private placement “will be used to expand the roll-out of the company’s IT systems” and that investee companies inclusive of IEST—the investee company of its subsidiary, Pacific Gaming Investments—would assist in rolling out an estimated backlog of about 300 Instawin Gaming Systems and Xchangebet POS Systems.

At present, DFNN has four main business segments—software application and development; providing business solutions to corporate clients; a gaming division that creates and operates online games; and online transaction services through its company, Intelligent Wave Philippines Inc.

On the PSE Monday, DFNN’s shares closed at P6.65 per share, lower by 5.6 percent from the previous trading session’s close of P7.05.

Activity on the lightly traded stock stood at P2.1 million.